© Reuters. Members of the Ukrainian service at their front line position, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, June 18, 2023. REUTERS/Anna Kudryavtseva
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Written by Mark Trevelyan
(Reuters) – Russia reported heavy fighting on Sunday on three sections of the front line in Ukraine, a day after it hosted an African peace mission that failed to generate enthusiasm from Moscow or Kiev.
A Russian official installed by Ukraine said Ukraine had recaptured Pyatikatki, a village in the southern Zaporizhia region, and holed up there while under Russian artillery fire.
“The wave-like attacks of the enemy have yielded results, despite the heavy losses,” the official, Vladimir Rogov, said in the Telegram messaging app.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not mention Pyatikatki in its daily update, in which it said its forces had repulsed Ukrainian attacks in three sections of the 1,000-kilometre front line. A separate statement by Russia’s Vostok Group said Ukraine had failed to reach a settlement.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
There was no comment from Ukraine, which last week said it had recaptured another nearby settlement, Lubkov, and a string of villages to the east, in the Donetsk region, at the start of its long-awaited counter-offensive.
Ukrainian officials have imposed a media blackout to help with operational security, but say Russia has taken far greater losses than Ukraine during its new offensive.
A regional official said Ukrainian forces had destroyed a large depot of Russian ammunition in the occupied Kherson region as part of Kiev’s weeks-long effort to wreak havoc on Russian supply lines.
British Defense Intelligence said heavy fighting in recent days had focused on Zaporizhia, western Donetsk and around Pakhmut, which was captured by Russian mercenaries last month after the longest battle of the war.
“Ukraine continues offensive operations in all of these areas and has made little progress,” it said on Twitter.
The assessment said that Russian defensive operations were “relatively effective in the south,” with both sides suffering heavy losses.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who rarely comments on the course of the war, made two unusually detailed interventions last week in which he mocked the Ukrainian push and said Kiev’s forces had “no chance” despite being newly equipped with Western tanks.
His comments appeared intended to reassure the Russians at a crucial juncture, after nearly 16 months of conflict, as Ukraine seeks to break months of virtual stalemate and reclaim the 18% of its territory that remains under Russian control.
peace mission
During talks in St Petersburg on Saturday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa presented Putin with a 10-point peace initiative from seven African countries and told him it was time for Russia and Ukraine to start negotiations to end the war.
Putin responded by launching a series of familiar accusations denied by Ukraine and the West, and said that it was Kiev, not Moscow, that refused to talk. He thanked Ramaphosa for his “noble mission”.
Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Putin had expressed interest in the plan, but it was “difficult to implement”.
In Kiev the day before, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had told the African delegation—the first since the war began to hold separate, face-to-face talks with the two leaders on their peace initiative—that allowing negotiations now would only lead to “freezing the war” and the suffering of the Ukrainian people.
The vast gulf between the two sides was further emphasized when Putin used a groundbreaking economic forum on Friday to personally crack down on Zelensky and to reaffirm the goals of “disarmament” and “demilitarization” of Ukraine that he set on the first day of the war, which Kiev and the West reject as a false pretext for invasion. .
Still, Ramaphosa sought to cast a positive view of the trip to Ukraine and Russia, tweeting on Sunday that “the Africa Peace Initiative has had an impact and its ultimate success will be measured against the objective, which is to stop the war.”
He said the Africans would continue to talk to both Putin and Zelensky and would brief UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on their efforts so far.
months of destruction
The war devastated Ukrainian towns and cities, forced millions of people to flee their homes and inflicted heavy but undisclosed casualties on both armies, as well as killing thousands of Ukrainian civilians.
Each side accused the other of blowing up a huge dam in Ukraine on June 6 and flooding large swathes of the war zone.
In the Russian-controlled town of Hola Bristan, Reuters filmed volunteers pumping water from flooded homes on Saturday and distributing bread and drinking water.
“No one in the world will be punished for the torture we go through, for this terrible disaster,” said Tamara, 78, a retired nurse.
“That’s what frustrates me. No one will be punished for it. I would like at least one person to be brought (on trial) and punished for everything. So that the whole world can see.”
